Steam Score Woes

[drealmer7]

Not much you can do about that except the old/new trick, balance the difficulties differently so that Normal is very easy, and there's more difficulties after Normal or they're tougher.

Definitely NOT the thing to do.  /puke !

[MirddinEmris]

Change the game with no other purpose that casuals can feel better about themself? Yeah, great idea

[ciox]

I'm not talking about this game, it's becoming more hardcore as time goes on and I couldn't stop it if I wanted to, but when making a new game it's probably what you should do to keep casual players from being destroyed as soon as they click on "Normal".

[MirddinEmris]

You cna always play on easy. If someone can't accept the fact that they don't have what it takes to play on normal and switch to lower difficulty, but instead need constant affirmation that he is a good player (instead of trying to become one), i don't think this is the game for him. There are plenty of game like this, that are coddling the player instead of challenging him, why not try them instead?

[Styg]

Not much you can do about that except the old/new trick, balance the difficulties differently so that Normal is very easy, and there's more difficulties after Normal or they're tougher.

It might not be tasteful, but I'm afraid this might be necessary in the future, especially considering that the game's "normal" is not really geared towards an average player, not even an average RPG player of today who has a couple of modern RPGs under his belt. So, yeah, while I do somewhat enjoy seeing players get dominated by my NPCs, it is necessary, financially, for the game to be playable by more than just the hardcore gamers.

[UnLimiTeD]

Then change the names.
Some people take it as a (well deserved) hit to their pride when they have to play on 'easy', but then just give each difficulty a different name. Maybe relating to monsters in the game, or...
Or go the praetorians route with difficulties hard, very hard, unbeatable. 
Most of us here will play on hard anyways, some on dominating, so you if you split the lower 2 difficulties into 3, there won't be many complaints coming from the core audience.

[ciox]

It seems that people will generally refuse to play on the lowest difficulty setting, whatever it's called.
Unless you have exactly 2 difficulty settings or something, people will pick something around the middle.

It might not be tasteful, but I'm afraid this might be necessary in the future, especially considering that the game's "normal" is not really geared towards an average player, not even an average RPG player of today who has a couple of modern RPGs under his belt. So, yeah, while I do somewhat enjoy seeing players get dominated by my NPCs, it is necessary, financially, for the game to be playable by more than just the hardcore gamers.

That's a surprise, I guess you may be right in the long run.
More difficulties is always nice anyway, I'd like to play on a difficulty that's like Hard but with Dominating's mobs for example, some others wanted that too IIRC.

[MirddinEmris]

Styg, if you have plans to make the game more accessible to an average player, you will have to completely redo the DC first. Many of the negative reviews on steam and negative posts on forums are about that area. Hell, even "oldschool" players are often sore and grumpy about this part of the game.

[Sykar]

Gosh I finally motivated myself to write a review, sorry about the long delay. I hope this will help to stall future morons who down rate it because they are not playing the usual brain dead AAA game and are helpless without a quest compass.

Edit: I just noticed that they gave it an average score of 72% on Metacritic. What a travesty considering they give any AAA game with a semblance of polish near perfect scores even though they are shallower than a puddle and almost as buggy as Pathfinder:Kingmaker at its release.

[Qiox]

I gave it a positive review in 2015

But, you can count 3 of my family members among the recent negative reviews.  Both of my brothers, and a nephew, were describing it as one of the best RPGs they ever played.  Then they reached the Deep Caverns...

No matter how much advice I have given them, they absolutely refuse to even install the game again.  They hate how it changed.  They hated how much your experiences there were affected by things they didn't know would matter (access to vendors).

Unfortunately all three prefer to play RPGs just once.   Most people like that are going to be left with a very bad impression upon reaching the end game.

Even I agree that it is a serious flaw with the game that has yet to be fixed.

[sthalik]

Then they reached the Deep Caverns...

No matter how much advice I have given them, they absolutely refuse to even install the game again.  They hate how it changed.

I wish the change into DC could be somewhat more gradual. And DC not being so distinct from earlier gameplay. Hollow Earth has excellent atmosphere but I can understand why it's too much for non-diehards.

[Qiox]

It is not even the area itself and its difficulty.  It is the fact that so much of what you did dozens of hours earlier has a drastic effect on what it is like down there.  And you have zero indication that this is coming.  Being told that you can't go back when you are at the elevator is meaningless because you have no idea of how much gameplay is left or what will be available to you down there, or which decisions you've made up until then will have what kind of effects.

It requires prior knowledge, or multiple runs, or looking up guides.   And for a lot of rpg players that is unforgivable.